Private Collection
by NewUserNamesAreHard
Summary: She was a collector of many things, many of them mere trinkets. Her latest acquisition however… Well… She was quite pleased to be adding Ren Tsuruga to her private collection. (Rated M for subject matter. I'm not even sure how to classify this... Dark I think. Scratch that. Definitely Dark.)
1. Chapter 1: On Display

**Disclaimer** **: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters… But you all knew that** **anyways.**

 **Warning!: This really is an M rated story. I work on it when my mind wanders off to the dark side.**

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Chapter 1: On Display

Ren's head was killing him. _How much did I have to drink last night?_ He questioned himself as he raised his arm to cover his eyes. Even through his closed eyelids it was too bright. He groaned as he sat upright and felt the word swim around him. Reaching out his other hand to stabilize himself he realized he never even made it to bed. The concrete floor of his loft wasn't nearly as forgiving as his memory foam bed. _Forget how much I had to drink last night. Why was I even drinking?_

Things had been going well for Ren recently. His schedule was full, but he preferred it that way. It had been that way ever since he moved back to Los Angeles last year. He hadn't been sure if he would be well received when he made the decision to leave Japan, but it had been time to go. And as it turned out his superstar status in Japan transferred quite easily to the United States. Which was a good thing, because he couldn't go back to Japan. For a month or so, early on, he couldn't even stand to listen to someone speak in Japanese. Ren shook his head to clear the memories away and felt fresh bile try to climb throat. _Seriously when was the last time I was this hung over?_

The sound of someone knocking seemed unnecessarily loud as Ren moved to cover his ears. _Why isn't John just letting himself in like always?_ His new manager didn't seem to have any respect for personal space. It wasn't unusual to come home to find John lounging on his couch. Admittedly, he was normally there for a reason. And it wasn't like Ren ever brought anyone home with him. The manager before John had asked him about that. John was hired the next day. _Maybe it's not John?_

Ren staggered to his feet, feeling as if the world was about to drop out from underneath him. Once he was upright he worked on opening his eyes. Pain shot through his head as light filtered through thin slits to sting his eyes. He snapped his eyes shut again. _I can navigate my own apartment without looking can't I?_ The only trick was figuring out where he was first. If he could just get his bearings he could close his eyes again and make it to the door.

The knocking grew louder and Ren knew his head was going to explode if that noise didn't stop soon. He muttered under his breath about "stupid echoes" and "never drinking again". Then he took a deep breath in attempt to settle his stomach and opened his eyes. This time his eyes stayed open.

Adrenaline pumped through Ren's system as he took in his surroundings. He wasn't in his apartment at all. He wasn't anywhere he had ever been before. The only thing that came to mind were the words She would have said. "Glass castle." As Ren's eyes strained to make sense of the scene he realized his words were almost correct. A two story house sat in the middle of the warehouse. And the entire thing seemed to be made of glass.

"I see you are awake." A flat voice said from just outside of Ren's peripheral vision. He spun towards the woman and found himself sprawled back on the floor as his stomach lurched into his throat once more. The woman cocked her head to the side as she observed him. "It's best not to move around too much until the drug has left your system. The dose we gave you was not lethal of course, but you should have slept for another couple of hours."

As Ren fought to control his rebelling stomach he took a closer look at the woman. She was in her mid to late 30's with a no-nonsense style of dress. The knocking he had heard must have actually been the sound of her kitten heels striking the concrete floor. "Where am I?" He asked after another wave of nausea passed.

"Where you are is of no importance. Who you are expected to be however… That is important. Do try to learn the rules quickly Mr. Tsuruga. My boss does not like to be disappointed."

Ren looked up at the woman groggily. "Who am I supposed to be?"

"Whoever the boss wants you to be. You are considered to be top tier actor are you not?"

"Yes?" Ren asked more than answered. His vision was blurring and it seemed to be getting darker. Saying he was disoriented would be an understatement. He felt like he was going to pass out. _What the hell?_ His choices were either lay down of his own accord or wait for his limbs to give out. He rolled gracelessly onto his back.

The woman let out an exasperated sigh. "I do hope you are feeling better by tomorrow morning Mr. Tsuruga. The boss is very interested in Japanese actors right now and until your acquisition we were lacking in that area."

Ren's eyes closed again as his head lolled to the side. He couldn't quite comprehend what the woman was telling him. _Acquisition?_ His adrenaline had come and gone leaving him exhausted and delirious. The florescent lights above him were bad enough by themselves, but every surface around him seemed to reflect more light back into his burning eyes. "Am I in a fish bowl?" He asked as the last of his lucidity left him.

"Of course not." The woman snapped. "It's a display case."

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 **A/N: Not even sure where this came from. I had a bad day at work and this ended up on the page. Probably too messed up for most Skip Beat fans but I figured I'd put it out there. My muse tends to get hung up on things, so I wasn't going to make any progress on my other story with this rattling around in my brain.**


	2. Chapter 2: Nested Nightmares

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters… But you all knew that anyways.**

 **Warning!: This really is an M rated story. I work on it when my mind wanders off to the dark side.**

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Chapter 2: Nested Nightmares*

 _After filming his last scene for the day Ren looked down at his phone impatiently. She had promised to call him, but a part of him didn't believe She would. After all, he had crossed a line. He had done the one thing She couldn't forgive him for._

 _Ren's phone chimed, letting him know he had received an email from Her. He didn't know how his manager had pulled it off, but Yashiro had programed a special sound just for Her. The corners of Ren's mouth twitched up into a smile. She didn't call him, but the fact that She was talking to him at all was a miracle._

 _He flipped open the phone in his hand and navigated to the email. At first, the words didn't register. Any contact from Her had to be a good sign... But maybe that wasn't true. The muscles in Ren's cheeks seemed to spasm as he struggled to identify the correct emotion to portray. The mind numbing panic that set in seemed familiar somehow, like he had read the words before…_

 _ **"I'm sorry. I can't keep pretending"**_

 _Ren didn't remember standing. He was just suddenly on his feet and running towards his car. He had to see Her. He had to know if those words meant what he thought they did._

 _The studio was a 40 minute drive from the restaurant She called home. Ren made the drive in 25 minutes. He didn't even stop to greet the owners as He bolted up the stairs. Calling Her name, he flung open the door to Her room._

 _The sliding door fell from its tracks, but Ren barely noticed as he sunk to his knees in the hallway. Her room was empty. The low table still sat near the middle, but the treasures that normally adorned it were absent. The futon was folded in its normal place at the bottom of Her closet, but not a single scrap of clothing hung above it._

 _Ren felt like he was suffocating. He kept trying to breathe, but he couldn't get enough air. The world was closing in on him; She had been the only thing keeping the darkness at bay._

 _He didn't know how long he had been sitting there staring at the empty room. It couldn't have been very long, but it felt like an eternity. Ren was unsteady as he rose to his feet and stumbled back down the stairs. He barely looked at Her landlords as he made his way back to the front door. He was almost at the threshold when he heard the Okami speak. "She was gone when we got up this morning."_

 _Ren felt his heart stop for a moment. She hadn't just fled from him. She had run away from Her surrogate family. She had run away from home._ **No!** _He screamed inside his head. It had to be a mistake. It wasn't like Her to do something like this. She wouldn't give up the life She had built here because of four stupid words. "I'm going to find Her." He told the older woman. "I'll find Her and I'll bring Her back home."_

 _He never heard the Okami's response. He was already moving back towards his car, intent on tracking down the missing actress. He knew where he needed to go next._

 _Everything between the restaurant and the front doors of LME passed in a blur. As the glass doors slid open, Ren's long legs carried him across the lobby of the talent agency in record time. He found himself running up the stairs to the third floor, taking them two steps at a time. He didn't even knock before he threw open the door to the LoveMe section locker room._

 _He couldn't remember crossing the room to open Her locker, but his grip on the door was the only thing keeping him upright. There were three things in the locker: Her LoveMe section uniform, Her high school uniform, and a pink tear drop gem She had affectionately named Princess Rosa. It was the last item that caused Ren's knees to buckle._

 _Princess Rosa was the only gift he had ever gotten Her to accept without a fight. He had spent weeks planning out the perfect way to give it to Her. He had doubted she even knew it was a gift from him. But She must have figured it out. Otherwise she would have never left the gem behind. It was her most prized possession._

 _Ren felt like his heart was being ground to dust. In a moment of weakness he had let the words slip. She had been cooking, showing him the correct way to make omu rice, when the words came to his lips unbidden. "God, I love you." She had frozen in place, ketchup pouring from the inverted bottle in Her hand. She hadn't run from him in that moment and Ren had stupidly thought that meant there was hope. But now She was gone._

 _Days flew by in the span of minutes as Ren watched his life in fast forward. He wasn't alone in his desperate search for Her, but as days turned into months the police stopped looking for a woman who clearly didn't want to be found. According to them, She had settled Her affairs and left of Her own volition. Even those closest to Her at LME slowly stopped looking._

 _Ren watched himself move through life like a corpse. He went to work and pasted on his trademark smile for the public. But the moment he was alone, he collapsed back in on himself. Nothing in his world seemed to have any color anymore. The only reason he got out of bed every morning was to resume his search for Her._

 _Every day seemed worse than the day before and the nights offered him no reprieve. He dreamed of the moment he got Her last email. Every night he watched himself excitedly flip open his phone, hoping against the odds that reality was the dream and Her email would wake him from his nightmare. Then he would read the words on the screen a_ _nd his heart would shatter once again. Every night he relived every torturous day since she disappeared._

Ren woke up screaming. The drugs had worn off and his traitorous brain had conjured images of Her again. It was the same nightmare he had every night. Well, every night he didn't take his pills. There was a reason he had paid to have his bedroom soundproofed.

He laughed at himself as he ran his fingers through his hair. Reality had come crashing down the moment he sat up. Three sets of eyes looked at him appraisingly through the glass wall of his new home. The woman he had met before raised an eyebrow in question. Ren almost doubled over as his laughter intensified. _I wake up trapped in glass box after being drugged and abducted… And She is still the only thing I can think of._

Ren's laughter deepened as his thoughts drifted to darker things. The smile that split his face was less than pleasant. It's not like he had to keep up the charade any longer. Angry eyes settled on his captors. "Did you need something?"

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 **A/N: I had another bad day yesterday. And as a result Ren is also having another bad day.**

 *** I'm not sure if this title makes sense to anyone who doesn't program, but it essentially means a nightmare within a nightmare.**


	3. Chapter 3: Tiffany and Charlie

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters… But you all knew that anyways.**

 **Warning!: This really is an M rated story. I work on it when my mind wanders off to the dark side.**

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Chapter 3: Tiffany and Charlie

 _"Did you need something?"_

Rina looked into the heated eyes of her latest acquisition. She felt her heart rate speed as those eyes shifted from her assistant to look directly at her. Most of the actors in her collection were docile, more concerned with continuing to breathe than fighting back. Tsuruga Ren however, looked at her with a challenge she had only seen once before. Maybe it was just something about the Japanese.

"Now that isn't very polite, Ren." Rina addressed the actor. She might as well have been talking to a statue; the man didn't even blink. He just looked at her with hatred painted on his face. Rina stood before his gaze, refusing to back down even as her heart beat hammered in her ears. She had faced monsters before, so he couldn't shake her. She was on this side of the glass, so she was in charge. She owned him, not the other way around.

As the seconds ticked by, Ren tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing. He looked like he was calculating his chances of scaring Rina to death. The odds didn't seem to be in his favor.

After a few minutes, the standoff ended when he let out a sigh. Doing nothing wasn't going to improve his situation. Ren's clothes stuck to him like a second skin as picked himself up off the floor. His sweat had all but glued them to his body. Unfortunately, it was a sensation he was all too familiar with. The mornings he didn't wake up covered in a cold sweat were becoming rarer, even with the sleeping pills he regularly took. He pulled his T-shirt from his body in a practiced movement, peeling it away from his skin as he pulled it smoothly over his head. The shirt dropped to the floor as he looked around the glass box.

Rina drank in the muscled form of her prize. It had been years since she was this excited about a new doll. He was perfect. They were perfect.

"So?" Ren prompted curtly. "What do you want?" It hadn't taken him very long to survey his 10' by 10' cage. It was sparsely furnished: a book case on one wall, an armchair on another, and in the back corner, a half wall hid a toilet and small sink from view.

"Be the perfect husband." Rina replied.

Ren didn't miss a beat, the corners of his mouth pulling up into a smile. "Till death do us part." He said darkly as he approached the glass. There was a different kind of darkness in his eyes now; a darkness that promised pleasures just the right side of pain. A look like that could replace foreplay entirely.

Rina's assistant snorted. "Not _her_ husband." Ren glanced at the assistant, keeping Rina in his peripheral vision. "Don't look at the boss with snuff film eyes, Mr. Tsuruga."

Rina took a step back. Her assistant was right. She had seen eyes like those before. And it _always_ ended badly for the woman on the other end. He hadn't even touched her and he had pulled her completely under his spell. It seemed he was every bit the actor he was rumored to be. Rina couldn't be more delighted.

Ren shrugged shamelessly as a look of mild disappointment crossed his face. It didn't have to be filmed, but he had certainly wanted to snuff out the life of the woman in front of him. The silent teenager standing behind Rina was more than enough reason for that. The girl hadn't spoken once, her face blank throughout the entire exchange. Even her eyes were empty.

Following Ren's gaze to the broken doll behind her, Rina smiled. _So it is going to be just like two years ago._ It had been sheer luck that she had figured out how to manipulate Tiffany, but now it looked like she could control Ren the same way. She wrapped an arm around Cherry's shoulders. The 13 year old actress had lasted for about 3 months. It was disappointing really. Getting younger actors to play parts of Rina's imagined families was becoming harder. She couldn't take them too frequently or someone was sure to catch on to their disappearances.

"I don't tend to hold on to broken dolls, but if you fancy her I could make an exception." Rina said with a smile. The muscles in Ren's face tightened as he looked at the girl. Physically she looked well cared for, but it was clear her mind had fled her. Ren's fists clenched, his captor was right, the girl was nothing but a broken doll now.

Self-loathing nearly choked Ren as he answered Rina. "I've no use for a broken doll either." He couldn't do anything for the girl and he knew it. He had been in her shoes years before, a teen trapped in his own mind. She was probably safer there.

Rina was caught off guard. The way he had been looking at Cherry, she was sure that he would offer himself up to save the girl. She pursed her lips in irritation. A doll you couldn't play with was hardly worth having. She wasn't like most collectors, it wasn't about keeping a pristine product in a mint condition package, it was about the joy her possessions gave her when she played with them.

She had started collecting dolls when she was only about 4 years old. Growing up in a dirt poor household, her collection was comprised mostly of toys she had rescued from the trash, but she loved them all the same. Rina was 6 before she finally found a doll with all of its limbs intact. She treasured that doll. It meant more to her than anything else in the world, her parents included. They never had time for her, they barely seemed to have time for anything.

Rina had grown up with that amber eyed doll serving as her only friend. No one wanted to be friends with the girl with the 'creepy doll'. It didn't matter to Rina though. As long as she had Tiffany she was happy.

It was late at night, about a week before Rina's 15th birthday, when her life changed for the better. She killed her parents that night. They had been fighting like usual, only this time the fight was about Rina. Someone had offered to buy her, but her parents couldn't seem to agree on a price. It wasn't that Rina cared about that, her world revolved around an aging porcelain doll. But when her father ripped Tiffany from Rina's grasp, she killed him with the broken shards of dolls shattered face. She turned his throat to bloody ribbons as her mother tried to stop her. Rina got rid of her too, sinking the jagged remains of Tiffany's neck through the soft hollow at the base of her mother's neck.

That was how Dryle found her, covered in her parents' blood, weeping over a broken doll. The slender girl had caught his eye on more than one occasion. That was why he had offered to buy her. She moved through the world like ghost, this spectral presence that seemed unobtainable. Dryle of course, only collected unattainable things. That was why he had gotten into the underworld in the first place. He desired the things that people living in the light of day could scarcely imagine, let alone obtain.

With Rina's parents dead, she was his to take, but the sorrow in the girl's eyes stopped him dead in his tracks. "Tiffany was supposed to find Charlie." Rina sobbed. "They were supposed to get married and live in a big house with 3 bedrooms." Tears continued to flow as she looked up at Dryle. "After a year they would have their first baby. If it was a boy they would name him Richard and if it was a girl she would be Tabitha, Tabby for short. But dad killed Tiffany! Now she is never going to have her perfect family! I couldn't have that, but Tiffany was supposed to have the perfect family!"

Dryle knelt in the puddle of blood next to the distraught teen. _A ghost looking for the perfect family to watch over._ He thought to himself. _A rare item indeed._ He whisked Rina away that night, welcoming the frail apparition into his home and his world.

She was a perfect addition to his underworld empire. She wasn't interested in anything that came through his auction house and every penny she made she spent on her ever growing collection of dolls. Her dolls were everything to her. Still, she never did find Charlie.

Instead she was out looking for a new dollhouse for Barbra and Wallace when she saw them. The perfect family she had been looking for. The woman's smile lit up the whole block and her husband looked at her with a love Rina had never witnessed before. Between them a young boy practically glowed as he recounted his day to his parents. She followed them for days, always staying in the shadows, but keeping them in sight.

It was the darkest day of Rina's life when she watched her perfect family wheel their suitcases to the curb after checking out of their hotel. She knew she couldn't follow them. She couldn't follow them back out into the light. She belonged in the dark with her dolls. But after that, her dolls slowly lost their sparkle. She couldn't get them to act out the emotions she had seen. She didn't have those emotions inside of herself.

Just over a year later, it was an unusual item in one of Dryle's auctions that gave her hope again. She was walking down the line of auction items checking that everything was in place when she first spotted them. Item number 23. Human Marionettes.

The man and woman were seated on a small stage meant to be rolled out before the auction participants. A hydraulic lift system would raise the beam above their heads on the auctioneer's que and a predetermined scene would be played out by the two puppets. Rina had seen The Puppeteer's handy work before, but she hadn't realized he did living art as well. The man looked at her from under his bangs, his broken neck preventing him from lifting his head.

Rina really had to give The Puppeteer credit for the improvement in his process. His previous works had been eye catching as well, but when you run a steel wire through dead flesh there is only so much you can do to cover up any accidental damage. With a living puppet, The Puppeteer only had keep the puppet healthy and their bodies would heal the damage. Though, Rina supposed that might create problems later on. What if the scar tissue in their broken joints hardened and made them harder to use?

That was when the idea came to Rina. Living dolls. She set to work immediately, designing a life sized doll house; the 3 bedroom dollhouse that Tiffany and Charlie were supposed to buy when they got married. It took 3 years and more than a few greased palms, but with Dryle's help Rina completed her dollhouse. After that it was just a matter of finding the right dolls.

Her first 6 dolls had all been slaves up for auction. They tried to comply with her demands, but as people they had been broken long before Rina purchased them. They didn't have the emotion's Rina wanted to see either. That was when she expanded into a new underworld venture all her own. She started abducting actors from across the globe, offering their skills up to the highest bidder. For the right price, Rina's dolls would act out any scene.

Some people just wanted to star in their own movie, but those were in the minority. Most of her clients wanted something either more violent or more sexual. That was when she started differentiating between her collection and her private collection. Every one of her dolls started out in her private collection. She didn't share them with anyone until she had owned them for at least a month. But as time went on she would make a decision to either keep a doll for herself or sell their skills. The dolls she let other people play with had a much shorter useful life. Inside of 6 months they tended to be either physically or mentally broken and incapable of satisfying her customer's demands.

Rina's private collection tended to fair a little better. The younger ones tended to break easily, but the adults were well cared for until she grew tired of them. There was only one permeant member of her private collection. Tiffany. The moment Rina saw her amber eyes flash across her TV screen she knew she had to have her. Ever since then, Rina had been looking Charlie.

Ren was supposed to be Charlie.

Rina leaned heavily on Cherry as she watched Ren's face. As far as she could tell, he meant what he said. He wouldn't bend to her will to protect a broken doll. She needed another way to control him.

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 **A/N: So… I didn't have a bad day this time. (Thank you for all of your well wishes.) I just have partial 'writers block'. I can't for the life of me make progress on my other ongoing story. I know what is supposed to happen, but for some reason or another I can't get the story out of my head and onto the page. So I wrote another chapter for this instead…**

 ***** **Shizuhoe – In answer to your question about drugs/pills. Ren was drugged when he was abducted. Prior to his abduction, he was regularly taking sleeping pills in attempt to minimize the occurrence of his nightmares.**

 *** Cleocat333 and KetiraTM I hope this chapter has at least partially satisfied your curiosity in regards Ren's abductors.**


	4. Chapter 4: Pieces

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters… But you all knew that anyways.**

 **Warning!: This really is an M rated story. I work on it when my mind wanders off to the dark side.**

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Chapter 4: Pieces

 _Rina leaned heavily on Cherry as she watched Ren's face. As far as she could tell, he meant what he said. He wouldn't bend to her will to protect a broken doll. She needed another way to control him._

"It's unfortunate that you don't want Cherry. It means I'll have to send her to auction." Rina sighed dramatically as she cupped Cherry's face in her hand. She turned the teen's head from side to side, looking at the girl as if she were appraising livestock. A small smile appeared on her lips as she thought of something. "It's a pity I'm going to have to sell her in parts to recoup my investment."

Ren's eyes widened as he processed what Rina had just said. She hadn't said it in so many words, but the threat was clear. Either he played along with her sick little fantasy or the broken little girl in front of him was going to be sold off one piece at a time.

"She does have pretty eyes at least, but I doubt anyone would want her for breeding stock." Rina continued her monologue. "Not that she needs her eyes to be used as breeding stock. Though, I do have two clients in particular that prefer to remove the eyes themselves. They tell me I just don't preserve them correctly."

Rina circled Cherry, taking inventory of the all the 'extra bits' that could be sold without dramatically decreasing the value of the main body. Her assistant started taking down notes as she spoke. "I suppose we'll start with the eyes, the arms, cut just above the elbow, and the legs, cut just above the knee. After that we'll know how much we have to sell the rest of her body for. Oh! But before we cut anything off we should sell of her virginity. Every woman has some value in that regard. Mr. Hu has an interest in girls her age doesn't he? We should offer her to him first. Mr. Quin accidently killed the last one and we still haven't collected the final sum from him for breach of contract."

Ren couldn't quite settle on an emotion. He was torn between fury, revulsion, and defeat. He was furious that he had been put in this position; revolted that someone could even think about doing those things to another human being; and well aware of his defeat. Rina had won. She was the better monster. It didn't matter what it cost him, he would do anything to keep Rina's threats from becoming a reality. "Stop." He commanded, his outrage ringing through the warehouse.

"But we were just getting to contingencies." Rina replied without looking at Ren. "If the main body doesn't sell we'll have to sell off the organs. Not to worry Charlie, it's nothing so crude as harvesting all of her organs at once and hoping we find buyers who are a match to her blood type. We only take organs as they come into demand. One at a time. She'll live through most of it."

If Ren had eaten anything in the last 24 hours it would have ended up on the floor of his cell. His body had decided on an emotion for him. It had settled on revolted. Ren looked up at Rina from the floor where he had collapsed on all fours. "Stop." He begged as he retched.

"Thats better." Rina told him as she stepped away from Cherry and placed a hand on the glass front of Ren's cage. "So Charlie, you'll behave yourself from now on won't you?" It was like the moment she knew he would bend to her will, she had stopped thinking about him has Tsuruga Ren. In her eyes he was Charlie now.

Rina held her hand to her ear as if waiting for a response. "As long as she is safe." Ren answered through gritted teeth.

"Tiffany would say the same thing. That's why I don't introduce her to any of the new children anymore. She insists on protecting all of them." Rina informed him.

Ren looked at her with a question clear on his face.

"Don't worry. I'll introduce you to your wife soon enough. But first… You really should get cleaned up." It was phrased as a suggestion, but Ren got the feeling Rina's suggestions were closer to orders than anything else. She turned away from him to address her assistant. "Put Cherry back in her box for me."

Ren watched as Rina's assistant led the teenager away. The girl didn't respond to anything but direct commands, but a part of her must still be functioning if she could understand what was being said to her. Ren should have been relieved that there was still a soul inside the girl's body. He wasn't. His presence had worsened her fate and there was nothing he could do to change it.

Rina smiled at Ren as he turned his head to look at her again. She was a kid with a shiny new toy and her excitement was written on her face. "The shower is in the front left corner, Charlie."

Ren looked to the corner of his cage as he staggered back to his feet. It certainly didn't look like there was a shower in the corner. Instead it seemed to be occupied by an armchair that was bolted to the wall.

"Pull the armchair out." Rina instructed.

Ren took the two steps required to reach the chair even as he shot Rina a disbelieving look.

He pulled on the chair, losing his balance momentarily as it pulled away from the wall with unexpected ease. No that wasn't right. The wall moved with the chair. Part of the wall at least.

Looking up, Ren could see the tracks in the top of his cage where two large glass panels pulled away from the wall to form a 4' by 4' shower enclosure. Along the bottom of the panels and at the moveable joints, a nearly transparent plastic formed a water shield. A drain had appeared from underneath the armchair and directly above it four showerheads seemed to be built right into the ceiling.

"You'll find soap, shampoo, and conditioner under the sink." Rina supplied happily as she watched Ren's reaction to the transforming furniture.

"What about contact solution?" Ren asked as he took inventory of the toiletries available to him. Now that Cherry was out of sight his voice had gained back the undertones of displeasure.

Rina rapped her fingers on the glass as if she were considering something. "Your medical records did not indicate that you wear contacts. Otherwise contact solution would have been provided. You'll simply have to do without for now."

It wasn't an ideal answer, but Ren nodded in understanding before stepping into the shower enclosure with small bottles of shampoo and conditioner in hand. One more trip to the 'half bathroom' to retrieve body wash and Ren was ready for a shower… If only Rina would stop watching him. "Was there something else?" He questioned as he glowered at his captor.

"Does everything in your closet fit you?" Rina asked as her eyes continued to run up and down his body.

Ren stared blankly back at the woman for a moment as he collected his thoughts. "If you are talking about the closet in my home in Los Angeles, the answer is yes."

"Perfect." Rina chirped happily. "I'll go find an outfit for your trip to the park this afternoon." With that she turned away, leaving Ren to wonder what she was talking about.

He found out nearly two hours later that 'The Park' was actually an indoor film set that was located in the next warehouse over. Getting ready to film one of Rina's movies was actually disturbingly normal. He was handed a script, sent to makeup, sent to wardrobe, sent back to makeup for touchups, and introduced to the director. Even the content of the script was strangely normal.

It was admittedly out of the norm to be kept isolated from the other actors until he would actually be needed on set. But that he assumed, was a precaution Rina took to prevent any of her dolls from conspiring against her. She seemed through enough to have considered it.

Ren read along with the script as he heard it being performed from the other side of a curtain. The sound of children's laughter filtering through the air made him feel nauseous. It was a disquieting reminder that Cherry wasn't the only child here. No, she wasn't the only victim.

 _Roseland: "Really, Tiffany. A girl like you shouldn't be wasting her time here helping out with her big brother's children. Go out and find a man of your own. That way we can take turns babysitting."_

 _Dave: "Don't tell her that. You know there is never going to a man good enough my baby sister."_

 _Tiffany: "I'm hardly a baby, Dave!"_

 _Roseland: "Of course you aren't. My husband is just over protective. Aren't you Dave?"_

 _Dave grumbles._

 _Tiffany: "Come on kids. We've spent enough time in the park for today. We'll come back tomorrow._

That was Ren's cue. One of the stage crew pulled back the curtain and motioned Ren though. He put on his best smile as he walked in front of the cameras and towards his fated meeting with Tiffany. Or whatever other poor soul Rina had pulled into her delusions. According to the script it was supposed to be love at first sight. Ren didn't have any love left in him though. Not since She left him.

Not until his knees gave out and his lungs refused to work.

Not until Her amber eyes met his again.

Not until his whole world shifted.

Not until he realized She didn't leave.

No. She was taken.

"Mogami-san."

* * *

 **A/N: *Sigh.* Nakamura-sensei finally gave me enough material to start writing Koga in my other story (Love Is Not Enough), but now I have to go back through and reread and edit the first 13 chapters. (Because I don't remember all the details and I don't want to mess things up.) It's not going well. (I have the attention span of a goldfish right now.) But on the up side, my writing does seem to have improved over time. Enough so that the mistakes I made the first time through make me cringe. But hey, I managed to write another chapter for this.**


End file.
